1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for generating an operation screen according to device specifications of a display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In association with an increase in functions of image forming apparatuses, multifunctional display devices such as operation units provided in the image forming apparatuses have also been developed. For example, the image forming apparatus that has functions of editing and processing received image data includes a display device that has a function of checking a processed image. Large-size full-color display devices are widely used in terms of improved operability, and display devices designed for “universal design” are also widely used in terms of user assistance.
Thus, it is desired that the display device in the image forming apparatus provides not only a notification function of device information but also a user interface (UI) function depending on intended uses of users. Developed as an image forming apparatus including a display device provided with the user interface function is an image forming apparatus configured to include a control unit and a display unit and to place a display panel in the display unit side. (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2007-282198 and 2007-34486, and Japanese Patent No. 3464418).
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-282198 proposes an image forming apparatus capable of performing various processes such as image editing and processing on received image data in association with improved image processing capability provided by the image forming apparatus and capable of checking the processed image data on the display device.
Japanese Patent No. 3464418 proposes an image forming apparatus capable of remote-controlling an output of a display screen through a display control device by connecting input and output units that implement a plurality of input/output functions to the display control device as a single unit that implements a display control function.
An image forming apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-34486 tabulates and manages image data for an operation screen that is displayed on a display panel by a central processing unit (CPU) provided in the display unit side, and combines the tabulated and managed image data with each other, to generate the operation screen. Thus, operation screens of various sizes can be generated in the display unit side, so that a flexible configuration without being affected by a screen size of the display panel can be achieved.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-279438 proposes an image forming apparatus as an information processing device that is applicable to the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a controller unit that stores therein font data used to generate an operation screen and a display unit with a display panel that acquires desired font data from the controller unit upon switching of a language on the operation screen. Thus, it is possible to obtain the image forming apparatus capable of handling a display of a plurality of languages while suppressing an increase in the capacity of memory in the display unit.
However, the image forming apparatuses described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-282198 and Japanese Patent No. 3464418 have some problems that if the display device is changed to any device with a larger screen size than the current screen size, the size of the display screen remains as the current one, so that data is not displayed with an appropriate size.
The image forming apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-34486 cannot generate and display any operation screen with images other than combinations of basic images previously tabulated and stored in a storage area. Therefore, to enable generation of operation screens with various display contents, the number of basic images to be stored need to be increased, and this causes the storage area to be narrowed.
In the image forming apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-279438, when the number of languages to be handled is increased, the font data needs to be prepared according to the number of languages, and this causes the storage area in the controller unit to be narrowed.